Abbotsford, Inc.
The Most Holy and Everlasting Fair Dinkum Free State of Democratic Abbotsford, Inc., known more simply as Abbotsford, Inc., Australia, Oz &c. is an ultra-right-wing despotic satire of the Australian Liberal government under Tony Abbott. It first appeared in the short-lived Insanity Reigns, and was reused verbatim in IdIOT; as a member of the Pacific Coalition, it was a chief combatant in the Philippine War and UKIP–Mystery War, and later intervened in the ''Basil'' crisis in support of Equestria. Abbotsford was a major regional power, and ended the game as the world's foremost nuclear state. Bitterly racist and xenophobic, its ethnic cleansing campaigns against homosexuals and the furry fandom, coupled with large-scale domestic crackdowns during the Basil crisis, led to an insurgency by the Labor Party in 3007–8 that ended in the flight of remaining opposition to continental Asia. The insurgency also marked a major turning point in relations with the United States of Vietnam after unsolicited USV intervention in Borneo led to a firefight with Australian troops and ultimately Abbotsford's expulsion from the island. In retaliation, Sydney pledged military and financial support to the separatist factions in the 3012 civil war, later intervening directly through Operation Tet for Tat. Although an ally of Nova Terra through the Pacific Coalition, whose covert supply of WMD allowed Panama to keep on par with United Manchinia during the Great Cyberwar, ennui over lack of reciprocal support, combined with loss of confidence in the Marshall administration during the EVIL false flag scandal, led Abbotsford to conspire with the Mystery Nation to support an internal coup with the goal of overthrowing the fascist dictatorship and transitioning America toward democratic government. Strategic and logistical complications repeatedly postponed its execution, and by the time it finally went to launch in 3014, the opposition had lost the initiative and the coup collapsed into out-and-out civil war. Abbotsford was dismantled during the game's epilogue as condemnations steadily mounted over Abbott's increasingly lunatic behaviour and humanocentric fanaticism, which culminated in the robotification of the Empire of Catkind in 3021. Long-time rival Bob Katter, who had been building a support base of Catholics disillusioned by Equestrian rule, launched his own leadership coup in 3022, leading Abbott and his inner cabal to flee to New Zealand and Katter to proclaim the restoration of the Commonwealth of Australia. This coincided with a last-ditch attempt by Australian exiles to liberate the country, resulting in a three-year civil war. Abbott was killed when his government turned on itself, and the remainder of the war was fought between the exile insurgents, backed by the game's main democratic states, and "Katter's Krew", backed by opponents to democratic régime change. Katter surrendered in 3024 after his allies abandoned him, and the old empire was rechristened the Commonwealth of Oceania. In Insanity Reigns Abbotsford founded itself in New Zealand and all Australian territory not already claimed by Operation Flaming Dingo. Assuming that all autocracies were dynastic, the Imperium of Man offered to marry off its princesses to Abbott's family, which he seized upon to extort military and industrial equipment for "grouse dowry". In IdIOT Abbotsford began the game in control of New Zealand and the eastern half of Australia. Abbott promptly declared the "Het Bloke's Crusade", a pre-emptive invasion of western Australia under the auspice of removing the "threat" of the Furry Fandom. As part of this operation, Sydney conspired to incite revolts in Timorese-held Perth and surrounding local governments, but Dili's empire collapsed at the end of 3001 and the region wilfully defected to Abbotsford, along with several islands in the South Pacific. Australia was unified in 3002 after Bob Katter, heading an exiled government from the west coast, surrendered to the Abbott régime. Philippine incident and beginning of interventionism Following the confrontation between Japan and the Mystery Nation over Luzon, Abbotsford was invited into a trilateral alliance alongside Nova Terra that became the Pacific Coalition to plan a surprise raid against the Japanese-held Philippines. As part of this venture, Sydney tried to broker assistance from the UKIP–Pirate Condominium and United States of Vietnam, neither to immediate effect. In late 3002, the allies launched Operation Dr. Doolittle in a bid to cripple the Japanese economy. The raid ended in disaster when Empress Shi detonated a network of underground nuclear weapons that sank the archipelago and unleashed global flooding, disrupting the world economy. The UKIPirates immediately launched their own raids on Canada, seizing several islands and blockading the coast. The mission was ultimately a qualified success, as the Space Jews imposed a retroactive debt on Japan's nuclear programme that threatened to bankrupt the country. In a bid to acquire nuclear expertise for use in the emerging ''Basil'' crisis, the Coalition made peace with Japan the following year, although Shi reneged on the nuclear transfer, prompting Abbotsford to engage in a string of spy attacks to recoup lost funds. The Coalition then turned its attention to UKIP, whose non-response to the 3002 memorandum combined with the Canadian raid's timing with Doolittle, led Sydney to suspect Captain Farage had forewarned Shi about a joint attack. The Coalition's retaliatory campaign, Operation Skipjack, was designed as a punitive measure to gain leverage in subsequent peace talks, and the Treaty of Louisbourg in 3004 concluded with UKIP ceding several of its own islands and providing nuclear technology. Abbotsford released New Guinea from occupation, which joined with Borneo as the Spartacus Union. ''Basil'' Crisis Basil crisis}} Immediately after peace talks with Japan began in 3003, government rhetoric shifted to attack the Soviet Union, whose leadership had fled the imploding state and now threatened global nuclear war with its ''Basil''-class supercarrier. Abbott provided modest support to the Mediterranean war effort as Australia mobilized for total war, and began mass-production of WMD to serve as strategic countermeasures against further Soviet nuclear attacks. Sydney had intended to supply more aid sooner, but its resources were split as Nova Terra petitioned the Coalition for aid in the Great Cyberwar that began around the same time. In 3006, a full expedition was deployed in preparation for the Siege of Jerusalem; a flanking manoeuvre codenamed Operation Freeduring Enddom, intended to encircle the incoming Soviet ground forces, intercepted an army led by the newly-minted super-general Darth Revan, destroying the force and leading to Revan's disappearance. The Basil's destruction by Bill Cipher led to the capture of the Soviet leadership and a peace settlement with the successor government in 3007. Internal dissent and insurgency In 3005, Abbotsford launched a comprehensive cybersecurity programme codenamed Project SMITH. Seeking to combat abrupt war weariness the following year, the government commenced an aggressive PR campaign and sweeping arrests of what it claimed were communist spies. The crackdowns backfired, militarizing political opponents and rallying opposition groups around Labor leader Bill Shorten. Abbott retaliated with "Plan Poppy", consolidating loyalist forces into a readily-defensible bloc while disrupting suspected rebel communications networks, with the result that insurgents were pushed out to the external islands. With Shorten attempting to muster a navy capable of taking on the mainland, and fearing prolonged war would lead to Vietnamese intervention, Abbott launched Operation Hansen in 3008, an ambitious attempt to seize all rebel-held territory at once. The campaign employed extensive deception tactics to disorient the defenders, successfully seizing New Guinea and the outlying islands. However, Vietnam did land on Borneo, and after trigger-happy Australian commanders failed to expel the marines, proceeded to firebomb the island and force their wholesale retreat. Sydney sued for damages the following year; while it failed to net monetary restitution, it secured the return of Batam-Palau Bintan, and a conditional pledge that Vietnam would join as a temporary ally in a war of Abbotsford's choosing. In the wake of the insurgency, Abbott announced that Indonesia, New Guinea, and its associated islands would be formally annexed into Australian States, appointing Vaisey, Sheriff of Nottingham as governor of the regions. Vaisey had previously served as immigration processor since the UKIP–Mystery War. A second insurrection was attempted in 3012, but was quashed before it could gain a foothold and accidentally sank Borneo, forcing Shorten and his remaining supporters to flee to the KCUF. Activity in Asia The exodus of the ayy lmaos and subsequent collapse of the Psych Nation plunged central Asia into a fractious civil war in 3009. Abbotsford pledged military and intelligence support to the Christian Life Sect, which merged with Nova Terran- and Mysterious-aligned factions to secure sovereignty as Kazakhstan in 3010. Abbotsford continued to supply limited financial aid to the Kazakh government, and maintained a permanent Australian garrison named the Central Asian Territorial Security Squadron. Vietnamese Civil War In 3012, widespread discontent over Vietnamese racial policy led to riots across the KCUF Alliance and secessionist movements in China and Southeast Asia. Seeking revenge for Saigon's opportunism in the Shorten Insurgency, Abbotsford began funnelling aid to the rebels through Kazakhstan at the same time Nova Terra invaded Japan and the Far East Asian Republic under the rationale of searching for the fugitive Shorten. Rin Tohsaka Jr., leader of the rebel coalition, began formal relations with the Pacific Coalition and offered to join the alliance in exchange for various postwar territorial guarantees. After the sudden death of Walter Kurtz in 3013, General Jack D. Ripper assumed command of the KCUF, changing strategy toward crushing the rebels and instituting a massive strategic weapons buildup to match the Coalition's (specifically Abbotsford's) nuclear arsenal. Vietnamese forces stormed China and pushed the rebels into a toehold in Xinjiang. In a bid to rescue the Chinese rebels from impending defeat, Sydney deployed a full invasion force to the theatre, and Operation Tet for Tat concluded with Ripper's capture and the flight of remaining Vietnamese loyalist forces to the off-world colony at Catachan. Operation Friendship While Abbotsford and Nova Terra had been formal allies since the Philippine War, Sydney remained wary of the Panamanian régime and its temperamental leader Connie Marshall. Both Abbotsford and the Mystery Nation felt Panama had taken their military aid for granted during the Cyberwar, and formed a secret defence pact against Nova Terra mid-decade over fears of its intentions both within and beyond the Americas. Abbott's opinion of Nova Terra rapidly deteriorated during the EVIL false flag scandal. While both governments had secretly conspired to flush out the perpetrator by manufacturing diplomatic rivalry, Panama was duped by its own ruse, culminating in vicious state and public denouncements of, and actual economic sanctions against, Australian businesses in 3009. The situation spiralled so badly out of control that the Marshall government created a diplomatic corps specifically to reconcile Nova Terran–Australian relations when the operation was ended later that year. While public attitudes normalized, Sydney decided that Panama was henceforth a strategic liability. In response to the Cyberwar, the Drug War, and the War on EVIL, Nova Terra had steadily ramped up domestic surveillance and other authoritarian methods to quell dissent; this combined with general war weariness in the wake of almost constant conflict fomented an underground opposition movement comprising sympathizers in the national public broadcaster and both military and intelligence departments. In 3011 the conspirators contacted the Mystery Nation, who in turn advised Abbotsford, resulting in Operation Friendship, a strategy aiming to oust the fascist régime through coup-d'état. Intended to begin the next year, Vietnam's descent into civil war scuttled the original plan, leading to its postponement until 3014 shortly after Ripper's capture. By then the opposition had lost the initiative and the conspirators were forced to intervene directly, resulting in a three-year civil war. The scandal prompted the Vietnamese successor states to suspend ties with the Pacific Coalition, consolidating into the ARCHER Alliance. Abbotsford's main front was an invasion of Central America to disrupt Loyalist communications; the campaign resolved swiftly and secured the first breakaway democracy. The war unofficially ended when surviving Nova Terran forces abandoned Earth in 3017; while Marshall never tendered a formal peace, the Nova Terran military was too exhausted to contemplate a counteroffensive. In an act of revenge against the entire planet, it blockaded the Solar System in 3025. Normalization of Asiatic relations Following Nova Terra's defeat and captured territories' restructuring under constitutional governments, ARCHER normalized relations with the Coalition, culminating in a joint campaign against the Siberian Federation, a prospective FEAR/KCUF successor, in 3018. Official borders were finalized, and Borneo was raised as an Australian Region. Robotification of the Space Cats Abbott was approached by the Enlightened Vigilante Infiltration League shortly after its founding in 3004, offering its services against target(s) of his choosing. Though he began negotiations on Nova Terra's behalf to secure support in the Cyberwar, EVIL made no further correspondence and was later revealed to have sided with Manchinia. When EVIL literally self-destructed in 3010, Herrick de Venn's cat Peril escaped to the moon to found the Lunar Kingdom of Bastetten. Though Peril disavowed any link between the criminal organization and his colony, Abbott believed him the true mastermind, suspecting all talking animals on principle. In 3014, Abbott ordered an overhaul of the nation's strategic weapons stockpile, replacing WMD warheads with payloads engineered to robotify organic material and link it to the command nexus, effectively turning enemy soldiers into Australian combat drones. The new arsenal was originally intended as a homeland defensive measure to supplement troop shortages during Operation Tet for Tat, but was never needed; it remained secret until the maiden voyage of the ASS Thatcher, Australia's first interstellar spaceship, to Space Australia in 3021. Staged as a catastrophic accident, the ship self-destructed in inner space, delivering the missiles to all territory controlled by the Imperium of Catkind, robotifying virtually the entire populace. Fearing the incident was the first step in a nonhuman genocide, other nations began planning to contain Abbotsford; one year later the Peaceful Skeleton Realm introduced the SPOOKED ballistic missile shield, effectively ending their use. Civil war and collapse Abbott's increasingly irrational attacks against nonhumans, in addition to the shift towards robotic military and intelligence, was also ill-received within his own government. Longtime rival Bob Katter had been constructing a personality cult of his own, targeting Catholic refugees from Equestria that refused to recognize Celestine IV as a legitimate Pope. In 3014, Katter began planning "Operation Antipope", his plan to coup the government, receiving a boon in support from an immigration surge the following year. "Katter's Krew" launched the insurrection in 3022, shortly after Abbott confirmed he had green-lit the attack on the Space Cats. Rebels stormed government offices and would have reached Kirribilli House, but Abbott and his inner circle evacuated the residence to New Zealand; Katter subsequently declared the restoration of the Commonwealth of Australia. A civil war erupted when Australian exiles launched their own bid to take back the country, seizing Indonesia and arresting Sheriff Vaisey as ARCHER invaded Kazakhstan and the client state of Pakistan. While Space Australia still recognized Abbott's government as legitimate, it was ill-fit to aid the besieged administration, reducing Abbotsford's de facto jurisdiction to New Zealand. When Abbott refused to conscion surrender his government turned on itself, resulting in a rapid succession of backstabbing and the state's dissolution. When the civil war ended in 3024, New Zealand was incorporated into the Commonwealth of Oceania. Geography Administrative divisions of Abbotsford, Inc.}} At its peak, Abbotsford controlled Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, East Timor, all of Indonesia except Borneo, several South Pacific islands, and a strip of land between India and China seized during the Vietnamese Civil War. Originally governed as a unitary state, following the repulsion of Bill Shorten's uprising and the reconquest of New Guinea, its South Asian holdings became a separate jurisdiction under the tyrannical Sheriff Vaisey. The Indian strip was granted nominal independence during Operation Friendship as the puppet state East Pakistan. In 3010, engineers began construction of the "Speed Trap", a defensive net in the Indian Ocean designed to intercept enemy submarines and impede naval movement, acting as an early warning against seaborne invasion on the west coast. Government Government of Abbotsford, Inc.}} Abbotsford was a totalitarian dictatorship centred on a pervasive personality cult. As head of a largely crony government, Abbott retained control of all state apparatuses and enforced an aggressive domestic surveillance and terror network to intimidate political opposition and peremptorily remove potential threats to the régime. The public broadcaster ABC was taken over and transformed into the "Abbott Broadcasting Corporation", regularly disseminating pro-government propaganda. Staunchly neoconservative, the Abbott administration advocated capitalism and free trade while using state-owned corporations to gain control of international markets. This included the buyout of Abbott's Frozen Custard in 3010, and manipulation of the 3016 International Free Trade Conference to secure Australia's dominance of the world economy. Foreign relations Foreign relations of Abbotsford, Inc.}} :"Abbott has no permanent friends. Abbott has no permanent enemies. Abbott has permanent witches." Despite Abbott's own megalomania, Sydney was suspicious of other autocratic régimes, and maintained permanent friendship with very few countries—chiefly, its client states. Despite Australia's anti-furry rhetoric, it was not adverse to strategic co-operation to advance its interests, such as its support of Equestria and the Elsweyr Sultanate during the Basil crisis. Conversely, despite its alliance with Nova Terra, Abbotsford remained suspicious of Panamanian intentions, and following the EVIL false flag scandal conspired with the Mystery Nation to develop a containment strategy before it dominated Eurasia the same way it had the Americas. After the Coalition, Abbotsford's primary foreign policy concern was the United States of Vietnam, with whom it had a tense relationship throughout the game. Sydney had made diplomatic overtures before the Philippine War and during the Far East Asian War and was both times ignored; this combined with General Kurtz's contempt for civilian government increasingly led Sydney to regard Saigon as a direct threat, and after the incident over Borneo, Abbott began investigating means of breaking Vietnam's stranglehold over the Far East, resulting in Sydney's support of the rebels during the 3012 civil war. Based on a map recovered in 3009, Abbotsford established contact with Space Australia in 3014, which provided limited aid during the Vietnam War. Space Oz remained Abbott's only ally during the civil war, though after the government killed itself Jeice looted Kirribilli House for Abbott's secret gold reserve. Society In addition to state-mandated Roman Catholicism, bogan culture had grown into a religion in itself overseen by the "Blokey Council", which touted Abbott as infallible interpreter of God's Will, if he wasn't semi-divine himself. State persecution of left-wing and pacifist elements sought to entrench a culture of conservatism, misogyny, homophobia, and general racial intolerance, with regular public demonization of communists and the Furry Fandom in particular. Abbotsford fielded five national football teams for FIFA's revival in 3008, one for each constituent region: the Azzamen (Australia), Whangarei Oilers (New Zealand), Javamancers (Indonesia), New Guinea Pigs (New Guinea), and the Hundred Thousand Fleet (Polynesia). Abbotsford hosted the World Cup in 3014, in which "there was a distinct lack of kidnapping, bribery, cheating and all the other nonsense" of previous tournaments. Military Abbotsford's military at the start of the game was largely conventional. The Abbotsford Royal Army featured volunteer regulars, the "Death Corps" commandos, and penal battalions assembled from convicts, political prisoners, and "social undesirables" that were commonly used as shock troops. Gray Mann was later hired to design robot soldiers to act as expendable reserves, and engineered Project SMITH, a revolutionary "bio-android" designed to infiltrate and subvert computer networks. When the Pacific Coalition gained access to WMD technology through the Treaty of Louisbourg, Abbotsford began mass production of strategic weapons for use against the Basil. Its allies' failure to fulfil WMD obligations forced it into permanent production to meet ABM requirements in the Coalition's subsequent wars, and by game's end it possessed the largest nuclear stockpile, rivalled only by Vietnam after its GMwank to stay competitive against its numerous enemies. Fun Facts * A roleplay segment intended for Insanity Reigns served as inspiration for a DYOS comic by Thorvald. * The initial cabinet roster in both games is taken verbatim from e350tb's dA journal published a few days after the Liberal victory in the 2013 federal election. See also * Commonwealth of Australia * Commonwealth of Oceania * Pacific Coalition (IdIOT) Category:Former dictatorships Category:Oceanic countries Category:English-speaking countries and territories Category:Christian-majority countries Category:Countries in Insanity Reigns Category:Countries in IdIOT